Tripped Up
by Akai Mu Tsuki
Summary: Some online friends decide to meet up IRL, but things go horribly wrong and they end up in a mansion with others who met online and decided to meet IRL. Thing is, one by one, they're being killed off. Who's the murderer? Future yaoi alert, all OCs!
1. The Darkness Awaits

**_Well, yes, a new story has come up (upcoming new stories and updates are slightly outlined on my profile if you wish to check them out). It's loosely based off of the manga, Doubt (and if I'm in the mood, Rei might show her annoying face (if you haven't noticed, I hate that girl with a burning passion... though I like her style of getting things done)). There will be two manga characters that will show up (those of you who know me and my OC Shinju, you should know who those two people are ^^) but that's a little later on~! On with the story!_**

**Tripped Up Chapter One: The Darkness Awaits**

**_It's common for online friends to agree to meet up in the real world…_**

**Jun'itsu: do you guys wanna meet in RL?**

**ShootingStar: that'd be fun ^^ sure, why not**

**SciLabRat: I'd have to make time in my schedule, but it'd be worth it**

**12Cylinder: haha, u make it sound like ur a stalker, Jun**

**NeedlesN'Stuff: sounds nice; I'm visiting Japan next week anyway**

**SecondJason: guess I wasn't the only one thinking it, huh? Yeah, where d'you wanna meet?**

**Jun'itsu: since Needles n' Sci aren't in Japan, how about we pick a tourist spot so they can find the place easily?**

**SciLabRat: that'd help a lot and, luckily, school ended a while ago here ^^**

**Jun'itsu: gloater**

**SciLabRat: so I'll just head to Japan during summer vacation**

**NeedlesN'Stuff: I don't have any patients for about two weeks, so I have time, too  
><span>NeedlesN'Stuff<span>: I've always wanted to go to Japan…**

**ShootingStar: now we just need a place to meet up at… what about Tokyo Tower? It's pretty famous**

**12Cylinder: but it gets REALLY crowded o'er there**

**SecondJason: wat about the 109 building?**

**Jun'itsu: eh, can't go there (=.=;)**

**12Cylinder: lols, rite, u got banned**

**Jun'itsu: hey, at least I didn't blow up a car**

**12Cylinder: oi, it blew up by itself! I just crashed it!**

**SecondJason: whatever the case was, we still need to find a place to meet up**

**12Cylinder: wat about the ramen shop at Dogenzaka? The old man wouldn't mind, prob**

**Jun'itsu: yea! His ramen's the best and~ it's the only ramen shop set up in a cart; it'll be easy to find!**

**ShootingStar: I'm sure just seeing silver hair will be easy to find ('-`)**

**Jun'itsu: (T^T) meanie**

**NeedlesN'Stuff: well, ive got a patient in a few minutes, so ttyl**

**SciLabRat: and I gotta check on my experiment before it explodes  
><span>SciLabRat<span>: o dammit, it just exploded**

**12Cylinder: lols, c ya later, Needles n' Sci~! (^-^)**

**Jun'itsu: man, u gotta start that all over now! Good luck!**

**ShootingStar: yea, well, make sure to clean that up Sci, and don't kill anyone, Needles!**

**NeedlesN'Stuff: I find that offensive – I do very well in my job!**

**SecondJason: we believe ya, really (=.=) –cough cough, no we don't–**

**NeedlesN'Stuff: (QoQ) meanies**

**[NeedlesN'Stuff has logged off]**

**[SciLabRat has logged off]**

**Jun'itsu: well, I better get ready to go to Dogenzaka (^-^)**

**12Cylinder: lols, its in a week tho**

**Jun'itsu: hey, ive got a busy week: school and shit and all (ﾟДﾟ)**

**ShootingStar: (T^T) don't even remind me – school's comin' bak for us**

**SecondJason: hah, me n' Cyl don't have**

**Jun'itsu: (Q,Q) and ur even rubbing it in our faces… well, gotta get some rest**

**ShootingStar: same, school's gonna wipe me out; nite**

**12Cylinder: I gotta work, too; nite~!**

**SecondJason: g'nite**

**Jun'itsu: c ya laterz (^o^)**

**[Jun'itsu has logged off]**

**[ShootingStar has logged off]**

**[12Cylinder has logged off]**

**[SecondJason has logged off]**

**[There is currently no one in the chat room]**

A bespectacled silverette stretched his arms above his head, groaning softly as his muscles stretched. A knock on the door alerted the teen of a visitor. "Hey, Shin, you better get some sleep."

"Yes, yes, I know," the red eyed teen smiled while folding his non-prescribed glasses. "I feel like you're my dad, not my brother."

The door creaked open to reveal a silverette with short bangs and a thin ponytail trailing down to his waist. "Please, if it were up to me, I'd have sent you to an insane asylum years ago, Shinju."

The aforementioned teen pouted. "Why?" he whined while standing from his rolling chair.

"You like staring at people's eyes and sometimes ask if you can have them," the silvery blue eyed male folded his arms, an annoyed expression taking over his face. "And you have tendencies to stalk the people you like."

Shinju scratched the back of his head. "Err… well… y'know… it's just… a habit?"

"It's a bad one," the older silverette hesitated before continuing with, "if it's _even_ a habit."

"Well, I've never killed anyone, so there."

"Neither have I."

"I'm just trying to make a point, Sen," Shinju stuck his tongue out at his brother. "Well, I'm gonna get some rest, so shoo."

Sen rolled his eyes exasperatedly. "Yes, yes, whatever. Night, Shin."

"Night!" the younger sibling called while flipping his light switch off. In the comfort of the darkness, he snuggled under his sheets and fell asleep.

Little did he know that the comfortable darkness would soon become a horrible nightmare.

**…_Yet none resulted in such a bloody massacre as this tale._**

_**...**_

_**This is the picture that goes along with this chapter, remove the spaces: **_http: / akaimutsuki . deviantart . com/#/d47qg6e


	2. And So We Meet

_**Yay~ Second chapter out, I'm SUCH a procrastinator =,= but whatever, here it is**_

**Tripped Up Chapter Two: And So We Meet**

The silverette tossed his phone in the air, only to catch it when it descended. "Ma~n! I'm the first one here!" he pouted while flipping his phone open. "They're twenty minutes late… geez, I thought we were in this together!"

"Waiting for someone?" a sarcastic voice toned, causing Shinju to turn around. A teenage girl with shoulder length auburn brown hair and even lighter brown eyes extended her hand with a small smile. "Jun, I presume?"

"Haha, very funny. You must be Star, huh? Look a lot more innocent than I expected."

"What _did_ you expect? A terrorist?" she asked with a scoff.

"Wouldn't be surprising," a third voice spoke up. A brunette teen with dark blue eyes smiled widely, shaking Shinju's hand. "You can't really trust who people say they are these days, am I right?"

"That's for sure," a cheerful, feminine voice agreed before a girl with long, chestnut brown hair and chocolate brown eyes walked up to them. "Since you're wearing an oddly colored lab coat, I'm guessing you're Sci?"

"And as long as there really were only two girls in that chat room, you'd have to be Cyl," the dark red lab coat adorning teen suspected.

"Correctamundo!"

"Ano, are you guys the ones who played Rabbit Doubt with me?" a brown haired man with sea green eyes and thin framed glasses asked curiously.

The long haired brunette grinned and patted the newcomer on the back. "Yeppers~!"

"You must be Needles. Now we just have to wait for Jason," Star observed before someone tapped her on the shoulder.

"Waitin' for me?" a deep voice asked. Everyone turned to see a red haired man, about a foot taller than most of them, and emerald green eyes. His eyes were sharp yet somewhat calming. "The name's Kimaori Jobajoba."

"J-Joba…joba…?" Shinju asked, clutching his stomach as his body convulsed with tiny tremors. The name was hilarious! "S-Sorry, just… your name is kinda… are you even Japanese?"

The redhead shrugged, brushing off the comment about his name easily. "Half; my mom is."

"Well it's nice to meet you, Kimaori-san. I'm Clara Yan, but everyone calls me 'Chi'," the girl with 'ShootingStar' as her handle name smiled a little while shaking the older man's hand.

They were calloused and worn, as if he used tools often. "No, it's my pleasure," he piped up, his eyes mischievous as he brought Clara's hand to his lips. "There's no need to use any honorifics; I'm sure we know enough about each other to do that much."

"U-Umm, yeah," the brown eyed brunette stuttered out in shock and embarrassment. Her cheeks were tinged pink as she pulled her hand out of the redhead's grasp and asked, "So what do you work as?"

"I'm in maintenance, so my hands are probably pretty rough," Kimaori explained. "How about you?"

"I'm just a student…"

The brunette wearing the lab coat coughed to bring the two out of their trance. "We do need to carry on with introductions, y'know. I'm Maverick Worthers, a student and lab assistant at XXX high school."

"So that's why your handle is 'SciLabRat'!" Cyl exclaimed while pounding her fist onto her open palm. She smiled warmly at the others before introducing herself as well. "As Maverick guessed before, I'm '12Cylinder'. M'name is Mori Harakura, born and raised up in Shibuya~!"

"I'm 'NeedlesN'Stuff', an acupuncturist. My name is Leon Kingsworth."

"So that's what was with your handle name!" Shinju chuckled. "I thought you were some BDSM fanatic. Not that I'd mind much," he smirked.

Rolling his eyes lightheartedly, Maverick smiled at the bespectacled student. "So what's _your_ name?"

"Handle 'Jun'itsu', I'm Shinju Kiryu~! Nice t' meetcha guys!" the aforementioned teen smiled while stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"Why don't we eat something before heading off? I'm starved," Mori suggested while taking a seat at the ramen shop. "I'll have shouyu ramen, please!"

"I'd like some as well, please," Leon murmured while taking a seat next to Mori.

"Me three," Maverick raised his hand as he took the other seat next to the cheerful girl.

"I'd like tonkotsu ramen and a glass of oolong tea, if you will," Kimaori waved and took a seat on the end, two seats away from Maverick.

"Tonkotsu ramen," Clara smiled while taking a seat between Maverick and Kimaori.

"Shio ramen, ojiisan!" Shinju made his order while plopping himself down next to the shy acupuncturist.

"Comin' right up!" the ramen shop owner exclaimed as he turned around to get the noodles ready.

Grinning slightly, the silverette turned his head to the right. "Even though we've never met each other… it kinda seems nostalgic, sitting here all together like this."

"It does seem like that, doesn't it?" Leon asked while a small smile graced his lips.

"S'like some kinda high school reunion or something," Mori chuckled, a wide grin spreading across her face.

"You can say that again," Maverick toned amusedly.

Clara softened her eyes, a light smile brightening her expression. "Nostalgic is one way to put it. I'd like to say it's more…"

"Refreshing?" Kimaori offered, receiving a nod from the brown haired female. "Yes, it's more of a 'seeing your friend after a vacation' type of feeling," the man chuckled.

Shinju accepted his bowl of shio ramen from the old man. "Hmm… guess that works, too. Ittadakimasu."

All went well and all was peaceful. There was no reason to think it would all go to hell in one night.

_**Picture not out yet, sorry guys ^^; But please do tell me what you think~**_


	3. What is There to Hope For?

_**Merely a rewrite of this chapter. I decided not to use characters from another anime and stuck with original characters.**_

**Tripped Up Chapter Three: What is There to Hope For?**

A sudden shiver wracked through Shinju's body as the temperature suddenly dropped. He groaned and rolled over onto his side. Yet still the cold was there. Huffing, the teen kept rolling until he came into contact with something warm (he was faintly aware of the warm object making a sound, but he was a bit disorientated so he shrugged it off).

"Warmth," he sighed happily, hugging said warmth against his chest and nuzzling his cheek against soft hair contently.

…Wait, what?

Red eyes snapped open and pushed his heat source a little ways away to get a good look at what, or rather _who_, he was cuddling. "…I am so sorry."

"Could you… get _off_ of me?" a raven haired teen asked, his slightly tanned cheeks tinged pink in embarrassment as Shinju continued to hold onto him.

"I could, but," the silverette hesitated, his red orbs gazing into bright, emerald green ones, "your eyes are so pretty."

The ravenette blushed and attempted to get Shinju off of him. "Wh-What?! N-No, that's so weird!"

Shinju encircled his arms around the teen's neck, inhaling the pine tree scent. "God, you _smell_ good, too…"

"Gah! Let go of me!"

"But you're so warm and it's so cold," Shinju complained, burying his face into the teen's chest.

"Please stop… we have to get back to the others…"

"The others…?" Shinju asked curiously. He let go of the mysterious teenager and then blinked when he remembered something. "Ah, right, the last thing I remember is hanging out with Maverick and the others. Which reminds me… where are we?"

Green eyes narrowed. "That's what I'd like to know," he sighed distastefully as he stood and went over to the exit.  
>Are you coming or not?"<p>

"Change in character much?" Shinju questioned, rising to his feet and walking alongside the teen, who blushed in response.

"Shut up, not my fault I get embarrassed easily… especially with close contact—whatever! Ah, right, my name—I'm Zeffu."

"Just 'Zeffu'? No first or last name? Kiryu Shinju, by the way."

"It's the only name you need to know," he whispered and pushed back a metal door thet stopped at. It opened to reveal a group of people sitting against the walls.

Shinju felt his breath stop as he realized why everyone was pressed against the dirty walls. Adrenaline pumped through his veins as he saw a bloodied body splayed in the middle of the room, the neck contorted to twist the head one eighty degrees. Bile rose in his throat, but Shinju found no strength in throwing up. Instead, he fought to hold down the creeping smile on his lips.

No, not here. He couldn't let 'that feeling' take over his body.

Shaking the thoughts from his head, he turned to Zeffu curiously. "Who… is that?"

"Who _was_ he is a better question," the ravenette countered, rubbing at his forehead with a stressful expression. "That body's been there since this morning. No one here can recognize him, and there doesn't seem to be anyone else in the area."

Red eyes furrowed confusedly. He looked back into the room, scanning it for anyone he knew before widening his eyes. "What? No! That's impossible, there has to be others here! The people that I was with… they're not here!"

"Calm down, we still haven't checked upstairs. But the door has been locked since the beginning and we can't get past it. Why don't you introduce yourself, first?"

"Right… Kiryu Shinju," he announced to everyone else, who remained silent. He felt slightly awkward just standing there with everyone staring at him, but thankfully Zeffu spoke up from beside him to break the silence.

"He's like one of us," except that really didn't make sense to Shinju.

"How do we know that?!" a blonde man growled, standing up and outright glaring at Shinju. "I saw him! He was smiling when he saw him! He's the killer! He's the murderer!" he shouted, pointing fingers at the silverette.

"Wh-What? Killer? Murderer? The hell are you talking about?! I haven't killed _anyone!_" Shinju shot back, glaring at the blonde man defensively.

"You smiled at a dead body! That's enough proof! You're proud of your work, aren't you, you little bastard!"

Shinju felt his fingers twitch, itching to punch the man in the face. Instead, he shoved them into his pockets and turned to face the dead body. "I didn't kill anyone you fucking bastard," he growled lowly, his eyes nothing but red slits at this point. "And I _didn't_ smile. Why the hell would I smile at a dead body?" except he did and he was trying to hide it. "Why would I smile when that's my _brother?!_"

Yes, that's why bile rose in his throat. That's why his hands shook. That's why he found no strength. He didn't recognize the body at first, but realization dawned on him when he took another look. That was his brother.

Tears gathered in the corners of his eyes but he wiped them away quickly. "Whatever, fuck this," he snarled. "I'm gonna go look for my friends," he continued, turning to leave.

This is why he hated interacting with real, live people. It was too stressful. It hurt too much. The pain. The rejection. The yelling. The torture. It was all just too much.

A hand shot out to grasp Shinju's wrist, causing the teen to tense apprehensively, as he'd always done whenever he was touched. "I'll help you," Zeffu uttered, green eyes looking to the side uncomfortably as a scowl settled on his face. "These guys are too weak minded to leave this room, so only I can go with you. Besides, I have to check out the upper floors anyway."

"…'Kay," Shinju walked beside Zeffu in the dimly lit hallways, a look of wonder pasted on his face. "…You're not scared?"

"Of what? You're not lying," Zeffu shrugged, pulling a flashlight out of his pocket. "It _was_ suspicious that I found you today rather than last night, but that leads to three conclusions: that you were either hiding from the murderer, hiding _because_ you're the murderer, or you were recently kidnapped and awoke here today. It's highly likely the third choice is true," he stated. "You were confused when Michael accused you, and fear was evident in your eyes when you saw the body."

"But…" Shinju trailed off, hesitating whether he should say what he was thinking. "…What that guy… Michael, what he said… was true. When I saw my brother… I…I instinctively wanted to smile… and not just then! Before, when my parents were…" he paused, his mind going back to the past.

_Blood splattered on the walls. Two dead bodies lying on the floor. A gun pointing right at him. A cruel smile. A murderer._

"Sure, I saw you smile for a split second," Zeffu stated as they began to walk up a flight of metal stairs. "But like there was fear in your eyes. You instinctively wanted to smile, meaning you didn't _want_ to, but you felt obligated to. It just means your crueler instincts are more prominent in your mind rather than your human ones. Besides, from the way you exploded about the fact he was your brother… you really cared about him. You wouldn't kill him," he continued, pressing his hand flat against a steel door. "This is the only door that leads to the second floor."

Shinju looked around the doorframe, searching for a lock or security passcode or even a padlock. Then his red eyes shot up as an eerie handwriting fancied his eyes. "What does that say, up there?"

Feitan moved the flashlight upward, narrowing his eyes at the sign and language. "This is…"

"It's written in Georgian," Zeffu acknowledged, eyes wide. "H-How far are we from Japan, really? For us to be in the Caucasus region…?"

Shinju blinked in confusion. "The… Caucasus?"

"It's a region at the border of Europe and Asia, where the Caucasus Mountains are and Europe's highest mountain, Mount Elbrus, is. Georgian is the native language of Georgia, not the state in the US, but the country in the Caucasus region. Unless we're being messed with, which I'm considering, we're in that region."

The silver haired teen bit his lower lip. '_So far away from home…_' he thought, before he realized there wasn't really anyone who was waiting for him at home anyway. His foster parents rarely acknowledged him, and his brother… well…

Shaking the thoughts from his head, Shinju turned to Zeffu. "Ne, can you read it?"

"Yeah. ტრიუკი სახლი (read as triuki sakhli, if google translate is right XD)… it means 'trick house' (again, if google translate is accurate ^o^;)."

"Then this whole place… is rigged? With traps?" Shinju asked no one in particular.

"I haven't run into anything too suspicious on the first floor… ah, except for the dead bodies and that room filled with weird masks," Zeffu remarked, smoothing his hand to the left of the door. "Hmm? There's a scanner here," he pointed out, using the flashlight to show it to Shinju. "For fingerprints? No… there's no screen big enough to put a finger on… and there's no card key slot… this red light… I've definitely seen it before…"

Shinju blinked once, his red eyes widening in surprise. "That's the scanner at those cash register thingies! I think… I mean, if that red light and the bar code on the back of your neck is any indication…"

"Bar code?" Zeffu touched the back of his neck, but predictably he couldn't feel anything. "…If there really is a bar code there, do I have to lean over and have the scanner scan it…?"

"It's a possibility, but we should just get by this door first, there might be more people beyond it. But why in such an inconvenient spot?" Shinju asked.

Zeffu merely shrugged, leaning over the old railing and hoping it wouldn't give away. The scanner identified the bar code and the door clicked open.

Shinju cautiously put his hand on the handle, pushing it down and slowly opening the door. What greeted them was darkness. A darkness that chilled their bones and engulfed their hope.

Hope… truly, what is the meaning of such a meaningless word? When hope is what truly breaks us in the end.


End file.
